Only time will tell if it was a bright idea and whether such a business venture will make enough money to be worth while. There are numerous posts on this topic in other forums here on e-ham.net. I don't personally find the idea of paying someone else to use their "super station" appealing but many others might feel differently.

I live in an HOA and am able to operate using stealth antennas on my "property" - such as it is. I had never really considered remote operation but became interested in exploring its possibilities when my son, who is a ham living in mid-town Manhattan, complained about the electrical noise levels in the city and the difficulty he was having hearing signals from his well-located antenna on the 15th floor terrace of his apartment building. I set up a modest remotely operated station here at home in my geriatric ghetto using my stealth antennas just to see how it might work. It was an exercise in irony. It worked too well! My son was often on my HOA-based station from New York when I wished to operate. The solution was to set up a remote station at my daughter's house about 70 miles south of my present location in Florida and get my home station back.

The remote station uses a TS-480HX, an LDG AT200ProII autotuner and a 90 foot inverted vee with loading coils near the ends for 80M. It's up 35 feet and fed with ladderline thru a 4: balun. It operates on all bands 80 thru 6 meters. It costs me about 50 or 60 dollars a year for remote internet access via the Logmein service. My son's happy and I am too now that have my stealth antennas back!

I'm certainly not much of a technician and am pretty dense when it comes to computers. The point is... if I can set up a remote station, anyone can. Find a friend or relative who will permit you to put a remote station on their property and tell your HOA to take a hike. Try to find someone fairly close by so that you don't have to drive a big distance to do work on the station. It ain't rocket science.

I think charging a Ham for the use of a remote operation would be no different than charging for the use of a repeater. I am sure that a bunch of Hams could all work together to set up a remote operation much like some clubs set up a repeater but not as a business.

I think I've already seen at least one business setup for remote operation but I'm not sure how well it's doing yet. Although this seems like a great idea, I have to wonder how ethical it would be in counting for DXCC or other awards. For example, lets say the remote station was in Florida and you lived in the Northern latitudes of Washington State like I do. From Florida you can work Africa, Europe, and the Middle East almost like they were next door all day long. Not so for us, especially over the pole. Should a contact made say with a YI (Iraq) station count for DXCC if the remote operation was about 2700 miles closer to the DX? My feeling is no, it shouldn't count.

However, if a group of hams or a person wanted to set something up locally and they were personally involved in the setup and operation of the remote station, I think I would be a bit more comfortable with that scenario. As you mentioned, it's getting more and more difficult to get away from HOA restrictions, especially for those who have limited choices on where they can live.

I use remotehams.com as well. Have transmit capabilities on a couple of radios in my state (MI). One is a Yaesu FTDX 5000D, with 1000 watts, on a Carolina Windom at 90 feet. Very popular radio with Michiganders. I can rarely use it because of popularity.

The other is an ICOM 756 PRO III with significantly less power and antenna. But I use this one a lot.

Made a donation to the remote hams *site* because there are significant amounts of time/money spent running it. And if the site is still relevant when I get an HF station up (A year maybe), I've decided to put a rig together and open it for new hams.

Systems like this seem to me to be a great way to get new guys on the air, even before they have equipment. Gotta hook them before they get licensed, then re-hook them after they get licensed.

The new tech is *marvelous*.

Logged

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